North Fork Willow Creek

Cade and I didn’t visit any swimming holes yesterday because we drove through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, which ate up all our time for potential swimming hole visitation. We stopped at Roaring River Falls in Kings Canyon, which is right off the road and has a swimming hole with jumping spots, but we were in a hurry and didn’t have time to get in. Today we explored North Fork Willow Creek, which is only five minutes up the road from where we are staying in Bass Lake. When I started compiling a list of potential California swimming holes to visit last year, Willow Creek was the first one on the list because it was the only swimming hole location in the state that I already knew about. I knew of it from a Rescue 911 segment titled “Mountain Pool Plunge” where a man got knocked unconscious while trying to slide down a waterfall and drowned, and his buddy broke his leg saving him. So far this probably isn’t sounding like a good reason to visit a swimming hole, but the creek is littered with rock tubs and potholes, and you KNOW how much I love potholes. When we first planned to come to Yosemite, I thought going to this place might be a wasted day in light of some of the other things to do in the area, but the forced closure of the park due to the Ferguson Fire (and the non-refundability of my cabin reservation) forced us to resort to backup plans, so Willow Creek was back on the table. This would be my second visit to a swimming hole featured on Rescue 911 (the first being Otter Springs in 2015).

After doing some research online and buying Timothy Joyce’s Swimming Holes of California book last year, I discovered a few more points of interest along the creek that seemed worth checking out. On the itinerary for today (in order from downstream to upstream) were Angel Falls (the location of the Rescue 911 segment), a series of potholes referred to as the Washing Machine and Dryer in Tim’s book, Willow Creek Falls, and an unnamed swimming hole upstream of Willow Creek Falls. There is also a waterfall called Devil’s Slide downstream of Willow Creek Falls that I wanted to look at, but I didn’t anticipate there being any good swimming opportunities here.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In summary, Willow Creek is a great swimming hole location with several worthwhile spots. The pool at Devil’s Slide was easily the winner (it kind of reminded me of a combination of Screaming Right Hand Turn Falls on Steels Creek and the upper pool at Harper Creek Falls back in North Carolina). In fact, the whole creek reminded me a lot of streams in the North Carolina mountains, namely Upper Creek and Steels Creek (albeit with a more generous serving of potholes). If you had just plopped me down and told me I was in North Carolina, I would have believed it. Angel Falls was my second favorite, although I found it to be a bit treacherous. Although Willow Creek kind of lacked that California grandeur found at some of the places we visited last year, its clear water and numerous slides, potholes, and rock pools should make it a fun playground for swimming hole enthusiasts and casual hikers alike.